An ongoing look at the partner publishers available through GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

In it’s nearly 210 years, Wiley has done more than just stand the test of time. John Wiley and Sons was founded by Charles Wiley, John’s father, in 1807. (John took over the family business upon his father’s death in 1826.) First established as a Manhattan-based printer, Wiley was the first U.S. publisher to have an office in London. Interestingly, much of the company’s early success was in the publishing of literature but such notable writers as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Nathaniel Hawthorne and many others.

My first week on the job back in December, I was told to save the date for the 2014 PLA Conference and plan to stay to see David Sedaris. At that moment, I knew I made the right career move. My conference experience was everything I hoped it’d be and the conference itself was a whole lot bigger than I imagined. I had a couple conferences under my belt, but neither matched up to the greatness of PLA.

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 21, 2014 – The Oscar Pistorius Trial

Whether you knew him as the first athlete to compete in the Olympics with prosthesis (it’s impossible to call him disabled) or for his current trial for the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius has spent much time in the international spotlight. The highest of high and lowest of lows. At just 27 he has accomplished much, and as his trial moves forward it remains to be seen what the future holds for him.

Here are five titles which look at the Oscar Pistorius trial from different perspectives:

Did you miss the buzz at last week’s PLA conference surrounding this groundbreaking new program? Career Online High School allows libraries to offer adults in their community the opportunity to earn an accredited high school diploma and career certificate. Hear what all the fuss is about at our live webcast, Wednesday, March 26, 3 pm EST!

To say I’m a fan of craft beer is accurate, but perhaps doesn’t paint the full picture. The fact is, for my husband and I, it’s “our thing.” We appreciate craft beer to the point that last month, for the fourth consecutive year, we traveled to the Annual Winter Beer Festival of the Michigan Brewers Guild. That’s right, Michigan’s Brewers Guild. This places us outdoors in the middle of February at a beer festival. The high was 24 degrees but surrounded by good beer and good friends, no one seemed to notice.

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 14, 2014 – The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

It’s the worst nightmare of any traveler, their family and most regular people. An airplane takes off at 12:41 am from Kuala Lumpur headed to Beijing with 239 people on board. Just two hours later… it’s vanished. The speculation began almost immediately: How had people boarded the plane with stolen passports? Was there a bomb? Could they have turned around? How long after the last radar ping was the plane still flying? Why is the ‘black box’ orange? In 2014, how do you lose a plane? With nearly a week passing, we know little more than we did the first day. The world continues to hope for the best, fear the worst, and wait for word.

Here are five titles which look at the the disappearance from different perspectives:

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 7, 2014 – The Ukraine

For several weeks, the Ukraine and the Crimean region have been in the news. What started as a celebration of the region with the Winter Olympics has become a near hourly reporting of increased tensions, dividing lines and fear on all sides of the conversation.

Here are five titles which look at the Ukraine from different perspectives:

I shared an inside secret with you in our first post and it felt liberating, so I’m going to do it again here. As a representative of a company with 60 years as a leading publisher of reference content, this secret is potentially risky to post, but no less true.

Whew. Okay. Here it goes…

I have heard several of our public libraries partners say…*gasp*…their patrons aren’t asking for reference anymore. That it’s hard to create excitement around reference. In fact, a much-esteemed leader in library land was so bold as to say, to my face, that we do ourselves a disservice by referring to our eBook platform as Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL).